


A Room Full of People; Only You

by FlygonRider



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1970s, F/F, Fluff, Interspecies Relationship, Interspecies Romance, Kissing, New York City, alcohol consumption, implied PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 11:26:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13145697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlygonRider/pseuds/FlygonRider
Summary: Coming here was a mistake. She felt like she was on the auction block, waiting for the baying crowd to-Starfire put down a gate on her thoughts before they got away from her. Focus on Raven, she told herself.Focus on the one thing that made this "gala" bearable.





	A Room Full of People; Only You

**Author's Note:**

> This is my fic for the Teen Titans Secret Santa exchange, for lordessdoodle on Tumblr!
> 
> The story takes place in May of 1977, which explains the references made to Star Wars, and is part of an ongoing AU I'm working on that takes place in New York City during the seventies and talks about the struggles between humans and Tamaranian refugees.
> 
> One last note, the Raven I use in this is from the Earth One universe, which means she's Navajo and has her Earth One backstory.
> 
> Reviews and kudos are always appreciated!

“Star, come on,” Dick moaned as he rolled over the edge of his bed to fish for a lost pencil. “There’ll be food and alcohol. Tams like alcohol, right?”

“Please, your alcohol could barely make a pip drunk, much less me.” Starfire crossed her arms.

“Star, I am begging you,” he pushed himself onto his knees and clasped his hands in front of him, “You’re gonna be the only one there I can talk to! Well, except for the old ladies who pinch my cheeks and sweaty shareholders.”

“I will be the only Tamaranian there, you do realize this?” She floated over to Dick’s desk, wrapping her tail around one of the shelves to anchor herself.

He almost seemed to sag with relief. “Yeah, well I’m gonna be the only Roma guy. We’ll be _token diversity buddies_.” He used jazz hands to try and make the last part seem better, but Starfire remained unimpressed. “Okay, okay. If you do this, I’ll get you tickets for Star Wars. We’ll go together and you can tell me everything they do wrong.”

Finally, Starfire relented. “Only if Raven may come with me.”

“Deal!” Dick practically leaped off the bed with excitement. “First, we’re gonna need to talk to Alfred about getting you a dress.”

* * *

When Starfire asked Raven to go, she sighed and turned back to the sink where she was cleaning bloodstains out of her underwear. “It’s a Wayne gala, Star, I might as well show up in my underwear. That’s like, rich of the rich.”

“Dick said that Alfred would help me find a dress, perhaps he could do the same for you?”

“I hope so, because otherwise I’m screwed.”

* * *

“Please stand still,” Alfred said dryly as he put another pin through the fabric of the dress. Starfire tried to keep from squirming and stabbing herself.

“You’re gonna look so nice!” Dick said from across the room as he watched.

“I feel like an animal that will be put up for display,” she muttered just loudly enough that Raven, sitting next to Dick, let out a laugh.

“Oh believe me, Miss Starfire, compared to some people I’ve seen, you would be quite fashionable,” Alfred reassured her. “And there’s the last pin. Please be careful when you take it off.”

He helped her lift it over her head and quickly went to drape it over a mannequin. “Raven, I have chosen some dresses for you to try on now.”

Raven quickly headed into the other room while Starfire settled back on her tail next to Dick, using her talons to balance.

“So, are you excited?” Dick asked her, grinning.

He got a middle finger in return.

* * *

Starfire planted herself in the corner with a glass of something bubbly and gold, what had Dick called it? Sham, Champy? Something close to that. It tasted funny, and she wasn’t sure how much she liked it.

She watched the people socializing and dancing on the floor, trying to keep her antennae from poking up to listen for the sound of bombs. The crowd made her uneasy, made her feel like a target instead of a guest.

The dress was too small, tight around her waist and loose around her chest, even with Alfred’s tailoring. She almost took a soldiers stance, then grimaced when the tight fabric hobbled her legs. She was too big, her shoulders too broad for something so delicate.

Not like Raven. Starfire could see her and Dr. Thompkins flattering and fawning over potential donors, the diamonds in her borrowed headpiece glinting under the lights. Her braid shimmered, and Starfire took another sip of her champion to try and chase away the lightness in her chest.

“Jeez, I just feel awkward,” Jason teased as he slid in next to her, holding a flute of ginger ale. “But you? You look it.”

“Did your parents never teach you manners?” Star snapped, downing the rest of her drink to keep from saying anything else.

“My parents are dead.” Jason shrugged.

“Yes, and so are mine. Join the clubhouse.”

Jason set his glass of ginger ale aside. “You wanna blow this pop stand and have some real fun?”

Starfire raised an eyebrow, tapping a talon against her flute. “I suppose so. What do you have in mind?”

Jason’s grin turned wolfish as he towed her out of the ballroom, through the Art Deco stained glass doors and into the warm, almost-summer air.

They went along one of the carefully maintained paths towards the back of the manor grounds. Slowly, the color turned from yellow-orange to bright silver as moonlight spilled through the trees.

“Jason, where are we going?” Starfire whispered as they passed under the shadow of an ancient, looming oak.

“It’s a surprise,” He replied quietly, as though he too did not want to break the silence.

Finally, Jason took a sharp left off the path, leading into a stand of trees.

In the clearing, Starfire could pick a small house out of the gloom, painted red with a black roof.

Jason ushered her inside and closed the door, quickly lighting a match and touching it to several candle wicks, filling the room with a soft glow. There were several pieces of furniture, including a couch shoved up against the wall.

“Don’t tell Bruce I brought these out here” he put out the match and stuffed it in his pocket. “He doesn’t like me using candles after I accidentally scorched the wallpaper in the Manor, which, rude, it was only one time.”

Starfire gingerly sat down on the couch, carefully brushing her dress out and trying not to catch it on any callouses. “Is that a record player?” She asked, nodding towards the machine in the corner.

“Oh yeah!” Jason bounded over and began going through the crate under the record table. “I have some music here too. It’s mostly Bruce’s though. Is there anything you’d like to listen to?”

“I do not listen to music much; you should choose, Jason.”

He pulled up a record and placed it on the turntable, letting a soothing instrumental fill the small space. 

“Thank you for bringing me out here,” Starfire said quietly as Jason settled into the other couch cushion. 

“It’s fine Star, you just looked really tense, you know? I get that way sometimes in crowds, like everything’s too loud and you’ll tear of the head of the next lady to call you ‘sweetheart’-“

“Yes,” Starfire cut him off, even if what he was describing wasn’t even close. “You sound like you speak from experience.”

“I don’t really like galas.” His expression had gone morose. “But Bruce keeps making me go. I don’t know why, I stick out like a sore thumb.” Starfire noticed how his voice was dropping lower, more gravelly, as his accent began creeping back in.

She leaned back into the cushion, sighing deeply. “We are two ugly fish in the same tiny pond.”

Jason chuckled. “Sorry, you made me think of one those stupid fish ponds rich people have with a bunch of fat, fancy kois, and then there’s you and me.” He poked her talon playfully with his foot. “You’d be a shark. You’re big enough to pull it off.”

Starfire smiled slow and languid, the exhaustion of the past several days washing over her. “And you would be the anchovy. Small and good with everything.”

Jason’s chuckle turned into a full-on laugh before he managed to calm himself down. “I’m curious though, what’d Dick bribe you with? Money? Food?”

“Tickets to that Star Wars movie. I asked him how and he just said “Bruce Wayne has fingers everywhere.” Which makes no sense to me; humans only have ten fingers!”

Their conversation was interrupted by a sudden knock at the door. Raven poked her head inside.

“Are you guys having a party without me?” She smiled, and Starfire felt the flutter in her pulse come back twice as strong.

“Just a ‘complain about rich folks party’,” Jason spoke up, standing and going over to bring her further inside. A breeze came in that made the candles gutter. “I’m thirsty anyway, so I’ll head back. Don’t wait up for me!”

Then he was gone, and only the music remained between them.

“Please, sit down!” Starfire scooted over and patted the space next to her. Raven flopped onto the other cushion, making sure she didn’t spill any of her drink. “May I take your glass?”

“Oh yeah, thanks, here you go,” Raven handed the glass to Star, who stretched over to put it on the record table. “I noticed you and Jason left, and when you didn’t come back, I wanted to check and make sure you were okay.”

“I thought you were,” for a moment, Starfire stuck her tongue between her teeth as she tried to find the right word, “ _schmoozing_ for donors for Friend Thompkins’ clinic?”

“Dr. Thompkins has it better than I ever could. She’ll be fine.” Raven put her feet up on the couch and began fiddling with the straps of her silver heels to take them off. Once they had fallen to the floor, she turned to Starfire, her face full of concern. “Are you really all right? You left pretty quickly.”

A lie had already sprung into Starfire’s mouth; the room was too hot, I didn’t like the music, a million variations thereof.

Tamaranian culture abhorred lying. They prided themselves on bald emotion, honesty, but Starfire had to learn, had been forced to so she could stay alive and out of her slaver’s claws-

No. She couldn’t lie. Not to Raven.

“I…do not like crowds. Back home, such a gathering would have been bombed.” She turned down the volume on the music, because she knew if Raven didn’t hear, she wouldn’t be able to repeat it. “And I felt very out of place. My dress does not fit, it makes me look like a—a _qrizkar!_ ”

“Hey,” Raven curled a hand over Starfire’s knee, making her go still, “don’t sell yourself short. I thought you looked pretty handsome.”

Starfire snorted. “Not as good as you.” 

She took a sort of delight in the way heat rose to Raven’s face, how she covered her mouth with her hand.

“Jeez, are all Tams as flirty as you?”

“Only to beautiful humans.” Raven froze up, and that made Starfire freeze up too because shit, they were walking on dangerous ice, but Star had thought she read the mood right, that flirting was okay and safe-

“Do you really mean that?” Raven moved closer, until there was barely any space between them and Starfire’s nose itched from her perfume. Her black hair had slivers of blue streaking between the diamonds of the headpiece.

“Promise.” There was nothing but silence. The record had stopped long ago.

“Is-is it okay if I kiss you?” Raven whispered, like she _knew_ , like she knew how close she was to getting burned, by humans, by Tamaranians, by everyone who wouldn’t understand why she wanted to do this.

But Starfire did, she understood, and that was the part that pushed her to close the gap.

Raven tasted sweet, like she had been drinking more then she let on, and her lips were smooth and waxy with lipstick, cool as she pressed against Starfire. As they moved together, she felt some part of her drowning, falling so deep into the sensation that she would be okay with never breathing again, if it meant she could have this.

“Wait,” she said after they separated, putting a talon over Raven’s heart to push her away. “There are better people-“ better _humans_ , “-to love then me. I saw how they looked at you, in the ballroom. You could go back and drink and choose whoever you pleased.”

Raven positioned herself so she was straddling Starfire’s legs, and began stroking her hair, her antennae, the scar on her neck, leaning in until they were inches apart. “And yet here I am, out here, with you,” her voice dropped to a husky whisper, “ _Koriand’r_.”

Starfire shuddered at hearing her truename spoken so intimately, almost like worship, and there were no words she could say to express the way her chest ached, how it was about to crack from the strain.

But it didn’t matter, because Raven was kissing her again, soft and troubled and a little scared, while Starfire let the rest of the world fade away.

**Author's Note:**

> Qrizkar is a Tamaranian word that means "foolish" or "buffoonish"


End file.
